The Karma of Untruthfulness

On-line since: 30th April, 2007

The Karma of Untruthfulness, Volume Two

Rudolf Steiner Archive Document

Lectures Section

Out of his research into the spiritual impulses of human evolution,
Steiner reveals the dominant role secret brotherhoods played in the events
culminating in World War One, and warns that the retarding forces of
nationalism must be overcome if Europe is to find its new destiny. He
emphasizes the urgent need for a new social structure to emerge out of the
insight of spiritual science if humanity is to progress into the future
with confidence. This volume is a continuation of Karma of Untruthfulness,
Volume One.

By Rudolf Steiner

Bn/GA 174

Out of his research into the spiritual impulses of human evolution,
Steiner reveals the dominant role secret brotherhoods played in the events
culminating in World War One, and warns that the retarding forces of
nationalism must be overcome if Europe is to find its new destiny. He
emphasizes the urgent need for a new social structure to emerge out of the
insight of spiritual science if humanity is to progress into the future
with confidence. This volume is a continuation of Karma of Untruthfulness,
Volume One.

These 12 lectures are from the lecture series entitled,
Historically, The Karma of Untruthfulness, Part 2 of 2,
published in the original German as,
Zeitgeschichte Betrachtungen. Das Karma der Unwahrhaftigkeit.
Zweiter Teil. Kosmische und menschliche Geschichte.
Translated by Johanna Collis and edited by Joan M. Thompson, we
present them here with the kind permission of the Rudolf Steiner
Nachlassverwaltung, Dornach, Switzerland. The Introduction is by
Rudi Lissau.

The karma of untruthfulness. The effect of poisons in man's higher
components. People who lag behind evolution fill their being with a
poisonous phantom of formative forces, the source of emptiness of soul,
hypochondria, aggressive instincts. If spiritual life is possible, it
must also be possible to go astray. Untruthfulness is the counter-image
of Imagination. Evil comes about through the misuse of higher forces.
Those who fail to accept the spirit develop poisons instead. Richard
Grelling's J'accuse and Romain Rolland's John Christopher
as examples of failure to find the spirit.

Nationalism, imperialism, spiritual life. The mechanical world of
material progress is non-national, like a body which is to receive
non-national spiritual science as its soul. Nationalism arises because
soul development lags behind material progress. Profusion of ideas in
the age of German Idealism. The power of slogans which are divorced
from reality. The abstract idea of ‘eternal peace’. Which
countries could have embarked on disarmament? British imperialism. The
puritanical and the imperialistic stream in England. The importance of
absolute truthfulness.

Tragedy and guilt among nations. How the folk soul works into
individuals. An individual belongs to a nation as a result of karma.
Nationality as something karmic is above logic, nationality as
something belonging to the blood is below logic. ‘Justice and
freedom’ are concepts which cannot be applied to nations. Rise
and fall of nations. Hebbel's definition of what is tragic. Seeley,
the historian of the British Empire. Prophetic writings. Treitschke,
Cramb, Kuropatkin. Untruth in the guise of truth. The importance of
actual facts.

Exhortation to members not to misrepresent these lectures. The
Austro-Serbian conflict and the World War. Russian and British
imperialism. Russia's attention drawn away from India and towards the
Near East. The chain reaction: Britain in Egypt, France in Morocco,
Italy in Tripoli, the Balkan War. The Grand Lodges as implements of
occult impulses. The democratic trend in the world paralleled by an
aristocratic trend in the Lodges. German Idealism transforms the
mysteries of the Lodges into a purely human matter. The spiritual life
of the Lodges originated in Central Europe: Fludd, pupil of Paracelsus;
Saint-Martin, pupil of Jakob Böhme. Sir Oliver Lodge:
materialistic view of spiritual matters. Fichte: Reden an die
deutsche Nation. Polzer-Hoditz: Thoughts during Wartime.

Materialistic history; history revealed through following one's
karma. Wilhelm von Humboldt and Heinrich von Treitschke. History
revealed through symptoms. Need to cultivate a sense for truth.
Treitschke's love for the truth. Humboldt's work on a concept of the
state; his successors Edouard Laboulaye and John Stuart Mill.
Treitschke's Freedom. Treitschke as a representative of the German
people. Treitschke not an exponent of the principle of power, but a
teacher for his people. The note from the Entente to President Wilson.
The meaningless term ‘Czecho-Slovaks’. Kramar and Masaryk.

The subconscious soul impulses. On self-knowledge. The solar plexus
as the point of contact for ego-activity. The ego as bearer of evil
forces which are held in check by the abdominal nervous system.
Liberation of the ego: madness. The nervous system of the spinal cord
as the point of contact for the astral body. Liberation of the astral
body: madness, volatility of ideas, manic conditions, depression,
hypochondria. The brain as point of contact of the etheric body. The
liberated etheric body has chiefly ahrimanic characteristics: envy,
jealousy, avarice. Psychiatry will have to learn to distinguish between
the abnormalities caused by the freeing of the different components.
The earth works on man through the solid element, the angeloi through
the fluid element, the archangeloi through the airy element, the folk
spirits through the system of ganglia. The working of the folk spirits
is removed from consciousness and therefore demonic. This is utilized
by secret brotherhoods who pursue the egoistic aims of their groups.

Recapitulation of previous lecture. The battles of the fifth
post-Atlantean period as expressions of the conflict between
materialism and spiritual life. The spiritual world-view of the sixth
post-Atlantean period. Echoes of the third and fourth post-Atlantean
periods in the peoples of Europe. Italy-Spain; France. The British
element as representative of the fifth post-Atlantean period.
Development of the commercial, industrial element. This strives to
dominate the world. The contrast between western commercial thinking
and eastern (Russian-Slav) spiritual inclinations. Central European
impulses: Luther, Huss, Wyclif, Zwingli, Kepler, Copernicus,
Galileo-Lomonosov as bridges between East and West. Central Europe
strives to find the spirit through the soul. The West seeks to prove
the spirit through experiments. Bacon, Shakespeare, Jakob Böhme,
Jakobus Baldus, King James I of England. ‘My kingdom is not of
this world.’ Theocracy, monarchy, industrial elements to be
replaced by the general human element which seeks no form of domination.
‘Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's.’ Attacks on
Anthroposophy. The Central Powers' call for peace.

The destructive power of untruthfulness in the relationship between
the living and the dead. When the living work on spiritual science this
gives the dead the opportunity to work in the physical world. Secret
brotherhoods bring about ahrimanic immortality by means of ceremonial
magic which leads to an illegitimate relationship with the dead.

Orientation of the human body according to the stars. The threefold
structure of man — head, breast organs and abdominal organs —
in relation to life after death. How the dead intervene in the world of
the living. Materialism as a barrier to a healthy relationship between
the earthly and the super-sensible worlds.

Consciousness in sleep and consciousness after death. Work of
angeloi, archangeloi and retarded spiritual beings on the dead.
Retarded archai as opponents of Christ. Occult impulses for egoistic
group purposes. Concepts which could provide the foundations for peace.
The spiritual significance of Central Europe.

Measure and number. The Platonic Cosmic Year. Goethe's studies on
the breathing of the earth. The links between speech and the rhythm of
breathing. Sleeping and waking and their importance for man's contact
with the spiritual world. The constitution of folk souls; the Italian
and Russian folk souls. The lack of concrete concepts. A brochure by
Hungaricus.

History of the Anthroposophical Movement. Saint-Martin. Ancient
wisdom and the etheric clairvoyance of the future. The flood of
‘occult’ literature compared with the wisdom given by
spiritual science. Bridges to be built between the physical and
spiritual world. German Idealism as the spiritual life of Central
Europe: Novalis, Schlegel, Steffens, Schubert, Troxler, K. C. Planck.
W. and J. Bolyai and the question of parallel lines. Honesty in forming
concepts. The element of general humanity in Central Europe in contrast
to the one-sided elements in the periphery. The necessity for concepts
to be in accord with reality. Parting words at a time of utmost
difficulty.

This is Copyrighted material that is provided for research and study
on the Internet at the Rudolf Steiner Archive. We encourage everyone
to support Anthroposophy, the anthroposophical movement, and the
anthroposophic community and its publishing initiatives by
purchasing this book from one of the following resources: